Whomever is selected will be sworn in at the start of council’s regular meeting at 6:30 tonight, just in time for what likely will be a heated public hearing on the Walmart proposal.

The Bentonville, Ark.-based retail giant is asking to rezone about six acres of land from its existing residential use to general retail, with additional requirements for lighting, right of way and screening of loading docks.

Springfield’s Planning and Zoning Commission initially voted against the request after hearing from nearby residents who are concerned, among other things, that the store would increase traffic on Normal Street to the south.

Jan. 24, the commission voted 5-2 to recommend the rezoning after Walmart submitted a revised plan that would block Normal to through traffic but still allow the store to have a driveway there granting access to Campbell.

Traffic is big concern

All of those topics are likely to be addressed again tonight at what could be a long and impassioned meeting.

By Friday afternoon, 18 people signed up with the City Clerk’s Office to speak, and the number is certain to grow before the hearing begins tonight.

One of those planning to speak is David Patrick, a member of Citizens Advocating Responsible Development, one of two groups publicly opposing the rezoning effort.

Patrick, who lives about a block north of the proposed store on Market Avenue, said his concerns center on traffic. He doesn’t think Walmart or the city have accurately estimated the effect the development will have on traffic flow on surrounding streets.

City traffic counts in that area are several years old, he said, and a film Walmart representatives showed at the Jan. 24 commission meeting was recorded in early January, when nearby Missouri State University was out of session.

Patrick said he had not been provided a copy of the traffic study Walmart commissioned, which uses traffic counts from late August.

“My biggest concern is this new left turn lane that’s going to be built in the middle of westbound Grand,” he said. “It’s only 150 feet ... and I’m afraid even with just five or six cars, you’ll have traffic backing up.”

Because of the short distance from the intersection, no traffic signals are being added to accommodate drivers turning in and out of the grocery store. Patrick said he’s afraid the new turn lanes and extra traffic in the existing center lane will make it more difficult for drivers to navigate.

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“It’s already a struggle sometimes to turn left onto Grand” from Market, Patrick said. He worries the congestion will force drivers to search for other routes through the surrounding neighborhood.

“It’s about traffic flow and the neighboring areas,” he said. “This is going to be a nightmare.”

City Traffic Engineer Martin Gugel said concerns about traffic are understandable, but a traffic study commissioned by Walmart shows the increase in traffic should be manageable.

Gugel said the city doesn’t have the staffing to do the reports but reviews them for accuracy.

“We put that on the applicant, because they’re asking for a rezoning,” he said. “There’s not a lot of ways they can fudge it in their favor.”

Gugel said Walmart’s traffic study includes traffic counts from Aug. 27-28 — when MSU was in session — at the intersection at Campbell and Grant and on surrounding streets. Additional counts at Grand and Market were done in November.

In all, the study estimates the new store will generate about 430 trips in or out of the lot during a peak hour, generally in the late afternoon or early evening.

About a quarter of those trips — 110 — are expected to involve drivers who already would have been passing through the area, Gugel said.

He acknowledged the extra traffic would add to existing congestion in the area.

“There’s a problem that already exists there now and they are adding to it,” he said. “We have looked at that intersection at Campbell and Grand and would like to do improvements there ... we’ve just not had the funding.”

In addition to paying for some road widening and the addition of new turn lanes, Walmart will be required to grant the city extra right of way that will make future improvements easier, he said.

Other items on tonight's agenda

• City Council will vote on an ordinance, discussed two weeks ago, that modifies the requirements for businesses seeking liquor licenses within 200 feet of a residential area. The change will require City Council to weigh in when at least 50 percent of neighboring property owners object to a license request but removes an existing ordinance — thought to conflict with state law — that let neighbors block a license altogether.
• Council will hold a public hearing on bill that changes the city’s administrative hearing process to comply with the Missouri Supreme Court’s ruling in a case involving Springfield’s use of red light cameras.
As part of the ruling, the court indicated the city should be using administrative hearing officers, rather than municipal judges, to hear and decide municipal ordinance violations involving nuisances, parking and other non-moving offenses.
The ordinance on tonight’s agenda lays out a system for doing so that is largely unchanged from past city practice. It does not restart the city’s red light camera program or send any new offenses to municipal court.